Playstation 2 and GameCube ports
Pythonistas,
During the past year, I did some work that involved porting Python 2.1 to the Sony Playstation 2 (professional developer system) and Nintendo GameCube platforms. Since it involved little code change to Python itself, I was wondering if there is interest in merging these changes into the main trunk?
This would first involved bringing those ports up to speed with the current CVS trunk. But before that, a PEP?
Cheers,
Jason
______________________________________________________________________ Jason Asbahr jason@asbahr.com
[Jason L. Asbahr]
Pythonistas,
During the past year, I did some work that involved porting Python 2.1 to the Sony Playstation 2 (professional developer system) and Nintendo GameCube platforms. Since it involved little code change to Python itself, I was wondering if there is interest in merging these changes into the main trunk?
This would first involved bringing those ports up to speed with the current CVS trunk. But before that, a PEP?
That would certainly get my son's attention and might even get him started in programming. I wouldn't mind seeing your efforts written up in a PEP. What exactly can you accomplish with Python on one of these boxes?
-- Patrick K. O'Brien Orbtech ----------------------------------------------- "Your source for Python software development." ----------------------------------------------- Web: http://www.orbtech.com/web/pobrien/ Blog: http://www.orbtech.com/blog/pobrien/ Wiki: http://www.orbtech.com/wiki/PatrickOBrien -----------------------------------------------
That would certainly get my son's attention and might even get him started in programming. I wouldn't mind seeing your efforts written up in a PEP. What exactly can you accomplish with Python on one of these boxes?
Don't you need a (costly) developers license in order to use this?
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
Patrick K. O'Brien wrote:
That would certainly get my son's attention and might even get him started in programming. I wouldn't mind seeing your efforts written up in a PEP. What exactly can you accomplish with Python on one of these boxes?
Guido wrote:
Don't you need a (costly) developers license in order to use this?
One does in fact need a costly, though very attractive and sleek :-), developer box from Sony to get the most out of Python on the PS2 as a professional game developer.
However, the hobbiest PS2/Linux upgrade kit for the retail PS2 unit may be acquired for $200 and Python could be used on that system as well. Info at http://playstation2-linux.com
As for what you can accomplish with Python in gaming, check out my papers at http://www.asbahr.com/papers.html :-)
Cheers,
Jason
"Jason L. Asbahr" wrote:
...
However, the hobbiest PS2/Linux upgrade kit for the retail PS2 unit may be acquired for $200 and Python could be used on that system as well. Info at http://playstation2-linux.com
What do you lose by going this route? Obviously if this was good enough there would be no need for developer boxes nor (I'd guess) for a special port of Python.
Paul Prescod
Paul,
The PS2 Linux FAQ has a great answer to this:
What are the differences between the Linux (for PlayStation 2) development environment and that used by professional game developers?
Professional game developers get access to a special version of the PlayStation 2 hardware which contains more memory and extra debug facilities. This hardware, known as the T10K, is a lot more expensive than a commercial PlayStation 2 and is only available to licensed game developers. If you are seriously interested in becoming a licensed game developer, please see this link for North America and this link for Europe and Australasia . In addition to the T10K, licensed game developers get additional support which is part of the reason that the T10K is so much more expensive than a PlayStation 2 console.
In terms of access to the PlayStation 2 hardware and libraries, Linux (for PlayStation 2) offers an almost identical set of functionality to that provided to licensed game developers. In fact the system manuals provided with the Linux kit have identical content to 6 of the 7 system manuals provided to licensed developers. The missing information which is provided to licensed developers and not to users of Linux (for PlayStation 2) describes the hardware that controls the CD/DVD-ROM, SPU2 Audio chip and other IO peripheral control hardware. This hardware functionality is still available for use with the linux kit through a software interface called the Runtime Environment.
The final major difference between the two is the operating system. A licensed developer creates games for the PlayStation 2 which use a light weight proprietary operating system kernel. This kernel offers much less functionality than Linux, but has the advantage of offering slightly faster access to the hardware.
In most cases, it is possible to get almost the same performance with Linux (for PlayStation 2) and the professional game development tools.
-----Original Message----- From: python-dev-admin@python.org [mailto:python-dev-admin@python.org]On Behalf Of Paul Prescod Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 8:15 PM To: Jason L. Asbahr Cc: python-dev@python.org Subject: Re: [Python-Dev] Playstation 2 and GameCube ports
"Jason L. Asbahr" wrote:
...
However, the hobbiest PS2/Linux upgrade kit for the retail PS2 unit may be acquired for $200 and Python could be used on that system as well. Info at http://playstation2-linux.com
What do you lose by going this route? Obviously if this was good enough there would be no need for developer boxes nor (I'd guess) for a special port of Python.
Paul Prescod
_______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev
During the past year, I did some work that involved porting Python 2.1 to the Sony Playstation 2 (professional developer system) and Nintendo GameCube platforms. Since it involved little code change to Python itself, I was wondering if there is interest in merging these changes into the main trunk?
This would first involved bringing those ports up to speed with the current CVS trunk. But before that, a PEP?
I don't think this needs a PEP -- you can just submit the changes to the SF patch manager, assuming they are indeed small.
Our neighbors Qove here in McLean might be interested in your work.
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)
participants (5)
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Guido van Rossum -
Jason L. Asbahr -
Jason L. Asbahr -
Patrick K. O'Brien -
Paul Prescod